Patch 2.2 notes, comments

They’re PTR notes, which means they may change before becoming the real deal, but… Let’s see what looks interesting, shall we?

first, two from general notes:

Power Regeneration: Any effect which triggers a change in your rate of power regeneration (Mana, Rage, Energy, Focus) will now cause an immediate reward of some power at the old rate of increase, and then begin new “ticks” of power at the new rate approximately 2 seconds later. This was done to improve functionality of abilities such as Evocation and Innervate so that they did not have wasted “ticks”.

Good, I think, though at first it felt bad. Druid casts Innervate on you, and you get an immediate (out of timing) pulse at your prior mana regen rate. This (barely) gives you a bit more than you got when innervate started immediately. Unless you were getting zero, in which case you get, well, two more seconds delay till you start getting mana.

Resilience Rating: The reduction to the percent chance to get a critical strike now also reduces the damage dealt by damage over time effects by the same percentage.

Subtle, but good. The Warlock’s DoTs now have a counter – not a great one, mind you, but a counter nonetheless. On the downside, this also reduces the damage from SW:P.

On to Priest Specifics…

Focused Power: This talent now increases the hit chance of all components of Mass Dispel correctly.

and

Mass Dispel: The portion of this spell that removes immunity effects (Blessing of Protection, Ice block, etc.), now has a chance to be resisted, and will display correctly to the combat log. It will no longer cause Rogues and Druids in Cat Form to lose stealth.

Definite yay. Remember, Mass Dispel isn’t just ‘dispell debuffs on party members’. It: “Dispels magic in a 15 yard radius, removing 1 harmful spell from each friendly target and 1 beneficial spell from each enemy target. Affects a maximum of 5 friendly targets and 5 enemy targets. This dispel is potent enough to remove Magic effects that are normally undispellable.” I use it a fair amount as it currently cancels a lot of stealths and traps and DoTs and enemy buffs and… Now, what’s going to happen is that immunity effects get a chance to resist instead of auto-dropping. But with Focused Power, the chance is reduced by 4%. Essentially making it a 1% basic chance of not dropping the enemy’s Ice Block (or whatever). At the cost, darnit, of a nerf. Darn stealthies can’t be canceled anymore.

Inner Focus: This ability will no longer lose charges when Shadowguard or Touch of Weakness is triggered.

eh. Small bonus.

Lightwell: The heals from this ability are now increased by the bonus healing effects on the Priest.

I am one of the apparently uncommon priests who likes lightwell – and on my next respec I’m going to put it back in. Provided your group is properly taught, it’s a wonderful spell. Where I really like using it is in the times I’m working with a warlock. Yes, shadow-weave is really good, too. But stick that where the warlock’s standing and tell everyone it’s reserved for that player’s life-tap — mana for the big DPS machine just became, well, not infinite, but definitely almost too much to use. This adds more to that. Good buff for the small number of priests that use it.

Mind Control: Creatures immune to this spell will now cause an immediate error message rather than make it seem like the spell succeeded with no effect.

and

Mind Control duration against PvP targets has been reduced to 10 seconds.

Respectively, a small good and a coup de gras to the spell in pvp. Small good because I’ve run into the annoyance of using it and thinking it’d been resisted. Since it’s three seconds to cast but really useful, I’ve tried a second time – or on the next fight, or… Getting this message will mean I reach for plan B instead of wasting the time. That same three seconds is why this is almost never used in PVP. Three seconds… an eternity. And you can almost never walk them off high cliffs anymore, and you can’t pick the spells or skills they’re going to use while you control them, and… basically, you can walk them into a bad position and generic attack one of your foes. But you could do this for almost a minute, before. Which was long enough to do some serious hurt to someone. Now, 10 seconds IF you get it off? Nevermore in pvp.

Pain Suppression: This talent will now reduce the chance for any buff on the Priest to be dispelled, rather than reduce the chance of dispelling buffs cast while it is active.

Confused? Don’t be. The tooltip helps: “Reduces all damage taken by 65% and increases resistance to Dispel mechanics by 65% for 8 sec.” Basically, if you’ve got your Inner Fire up against a Shaman, you’ve got 8 seconds where his various “strip buffs” skills are almost a waste. And I’m happy to waste the mana of opponents.

Prayer of Mending: This spell can no longer jump to an Imp with Phase Shift active. It will also no longer cause the healed target to stand up.

and

Prayer of Mending: This ability will now be triggered when a player takes damage from effects placed on friendly targets.

A buff and a “huh?”. PoM is a very useful spell, especially when your group is well-trained. That is, if you’re not supposed to be melee, stay outside melee range so PoM only bounces to the melee people. Thing is, the Imp moves around in a not-so-controllable fashion and picks up the PoM – and when it’s phase shifted, it can’t take damage and so the PoM stagnates. Recast is necessary. As to the damage issue… I’m not completely sure. Excluding the Warlock’s life tap, damage from feedback and other friendly spells already caused PoM to bounce. I’ll have to watch for more info, frankly.

Shadowguard: This ability will now work properly even when the Priest is stunned, fleeing, or incapacitated.

If you’re a troll priest, this is great. If you’re anything else… meh.

Shackle Undead: It is no longer possible to have Shackle Undead on two targets at the same time in the outdoor world.

This was always tricksy but fun to pull off. Ah, well, now it’s one at a time.

Surge of Light: This ability now properly grants its effects to one and only one casting of Smite each time it activates. Interaction issues with Inner Focus have been fixed.

For Holy Smiters, this is a major debuff – though it’s changing it to “how it was intended”. Yes, I thoroughly enjoyed 10 seconds worth of instant (plus GCD) cast no-mana-cost smites. Gone – just one “free and fast” smite when something crits. Still nice, but not near as nice as before. As to the interaction with Inner Focus… I have no clue. My hope is that SoL is supposed to work without engaging IF, meaning you can get both benefits on separate spells, but if Finagle’s law is in effect it means the opposite – IF and SoL are both burned on the single free and fast smite. Experimentation will determine which, I guess.

Touch of Weakness: This ability will now trigger properly if struck while mounted.

And last, a buff for the undead priests.

One gear change of special note to priests:

Avatar Raiment Set: The set bonus for Renew now increases the duration of Renew by 3 seconds instead of increasing the target’s resistance.

About…

I've experience with many priests of many races and specs on several servers. The more I play, the more I realize how much I do not yet know. This is a share of some of what I have learned.
My main these days is Zingiber on the Undermine server.